“‘How I regret that the death of this young prince deprived me of the happiness of opening the gates of France to him and rewarding his noble sentiments.’” [127]
The Duc de Chartres now also looked with disapproval upon his father’s conduct. In his “Mémoire’s” Louis XVIII. quotes a letter of M. de Boissy, who says that the only republican amongst the sons of Égalité was the Duc de Montpensier. [128]
The latter part of the sojourn of Mme. de Genlis in England was overshadowed by anxieties, annoyances, and fears.
Like all other nations, the English were horror-stricken at the crimes and cruelties going on in France, and exasperated against their perpetrators, more especially against the Duke of Orléans, who was regarded with universal hatred and contempt.
The general indignation was extended to all who had, or were believed to have, any complicity in the horrors committed, or any connection with the miscreants who were guilty of them; and now Mme. de Genlis began to feel the consequences of the line of conduct she had chosen to adopt.
Anonymous letters filled with abuse and threats poured in upon her; she was told the house would be set on fire in the night, she heard her name cried in the streets, and on sending out for the newspaper being sold, she saw a long story about herself and M. de Calonne, giving the history of an interview they had at Paris the preceding evening! She sent it to Sheridan, who was a friend of hers, begging him to write to the paper saying that she did not know Calonne, and had not been at Paris for many months, which he did.
Of course she thought all these denunciations most unjust and astonishing. Why, she asked, should they call her a “savage fury,” and abuse her in this way?
“I never carried on a single intrigue. I loved the Monarchy, and I spared no efforts to soften and moderate M. le Duc d’Orléans,” not realising that the way to escape suspicion was not to try to soften, but to have nothing to do with him; and that if she loved the Monarchy she had shown her affection in a very strange manner. But she was a strange mixture of great talents and many good qualities with frivolity, inconsistency, and shallowness. For example, when she was told that the Monarchy (which she says she loved) had fallen, and the Republic been declared, her first exclamation was—